White Room

About the White Room

The White Room provides current information relating to new technologies for energy efficiency. Stay connected with the latest news, events, and scientific breakthroughs in this fast moving sector. Use our filters on the left or click here to send a suggestion for content to add.

Air conditioners consume a large amount of energy. Nearly all of the world’s booming cities are in the tropics and will be home to an estimated one billion new consumers by 2025. As temperatures rise, they (and we) will use more air-conditioning worrying researchers.

The latest news from the United Nations’ climate talks in Doha, Qatar, where representatives from nearly 200 countries are working on a second round of pledges to reduce emissions ahead of the Kyoto Protocol’s expiration.

Burning natural gas to generate electricity releases about half as much carbon dioxide as burning coal, but such a benefit can be offset by accidental methane leakage during drilling and transmission. A new measuring system can help minimize accidental methane releases.

Soot, or black carbon, is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming and its influence on climate has been greatly underestimated, according to the latest Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

China has leapfrogged the United States in greenhouse gas policy. The country will introduce a stringent greenhouse gas tax that aims to protect the environment and lower CO2 emissions. This is good news for the country and for the planet.

Latest EIA reports show declining trends in coal use in the US, but increasing trends in almost every other part of the world. The report says that by 2017, coal is likely to surpass oil as the world's top energy source.